IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE SCENT FREE?
The short answer to that is a big no, but there are many things you can do to decrease human scent. I have been obsessed with scent control for the last four to five years after watching a few different hunting shows talking about it, mainly the Drury Brothers.
I look back 15 to 20 years ago when I started deer hunting at the age of 13 and realize all of the mistakes I made. My dad and I didn’t have a clue what we were doing and we just hunted the properties that we had access to. We didn’t take the wind into account at all nor did we use any cover spray. It’s no big shock as to why we never saw big bucks unless it was a complete accident and we played the wind right that day and didn’t even know it.
IS IT POSSIBLE TO SHOOT BIG BUCKS WITHOUT USING SCENT CONTROL?
Absolutely, but there must be a lot of luck involved. I shot a buck when I was 17 that was right around 135” and that was considered a monster for the area of Ohio that I live in. If I would have been asked what I did to be able to successfully Harvest that deer, the only answers I would have came up with was that I was in the right place at the right time, it was the rut, and I had a lucky horseshoe in my pocket as my dad always told me.
I say all of that to tell you this, scent control is the most important thing you should focus on if you want to be a successful deer hunter. Over the last few years I’ve really taken scent control to the extreme. I’ve used several products that have cost me hundreds of dollars. Some people would say that is crazy to spend that kind of money only to harvest a deer. There are plenty of people out there that completely refuse to pay attention to scent control and they say just to play the wind. I would agree that if you play the Wind that you can be successful. most of us only have a few days per year To hunt so why not put every advantage in your favor?
IS SCENT CONTROL IMPORTANT?
You probably clicked on this article to read how I fooled the nose of a 162” Kentucky giant. The first year I ever hunted in Kentucky at an Outfitter was in 2016. The temperatures for opening weekend we’re at a blistering 95 degrees every single day. I had just bought a scent Crusher gear bag prior to the trip knowing that I would be sweating profusely. What I did was pack all my hunting gear in my bag and run the ozone generator on the way to the stand to where I was dropped off. Not sweating wasn’t really an option so I tried to do everything I could to eliminate my scent. Long story short, I cycled my clothes through the scent crusher bag twice a day instead of washing them. People thought I was crazy for not washing my clothes but I truly believed in the product and I can honestly say I never got winded by any deer that whole week.
I made my second trip to Kentucky in 2017 to the same outfitter, Whitetail Crossing. I decided to hunt the second week of season rather than hunting the opening weekend. I wanted to be in camp with less people and I was hoping the temperatures would be little bit cooler. The temperatures that week where in the high 80s which didn’t seem too hateful considering the year before. The first two evenings I hunted I didn’t really see any shooter bucks.
The owner of the outfitter, Bryan, had a different plan for me for the 3rd night. There is a stand at a farm 45 minutes away that someone shot a giant out of the opening weekend. He usually doesn’t try to put people in the same stands back-to-back weekends but there has been a big deer spotted on camera and he had white feet. They nicknamed him Socks. Bryan told me to sit in this spot with an east wind that I had to be completely obsessed with scent control. I told him that’s no problem at all and then I would go to that stand. to prepare for that sit oh, I showered with Upwind body wash and of course used my Scent Crusher bag to cycle my clothes through. While in the tree I always use my Ozonics unit which produces a barrier of ozone over my head and in front of me to kill the bacteria that human scent gives off. Like I said before, why not put myself at the advantage if I am limited to hunting a few weeks out of the year.
I forgot to mention earlier that Bryan told me that I needed to be in the stand way earlier than normal because the deer move so early in that spot for some reason. He was not exaggerating at all. I was in the stand by 2:30 p.m. and was seeing deer within 15 minutes. In all I was in that stand for 5 hours that evening and saw 35 deer, nine of which were bucks but unfortunately there were no shooters.
After seeing all those dear, I was super pumped to go back to that stand no matter what the wind was because I knew I could be scent free or at least cover my scent. This day was absolutely crazy because it got down to 65 degrees by 4 p.m. due to a thunderstorm rolling in later that evening. I was in the stand again by around 2 p.m. and started seeing deer shortly after. after seeing three bucks and several does funnel down a hill, all I could see were a set of white legs moving through the brush. Having seen the trail camera pictures of the buck they called Socks, I knew it was him. They had no pictures of him with his velvet shed so they really didn’t know how big he was and neither did I. All I knew that he was a shooter and it was go time. The wind was swirling and blowing over my right shoulder toward the deer so as soon as I saw him, I sprayed myself a little bit more with upwind spray. This deer was funneling down the hill the same way the other ones were so I knew exactly where he was going and I knew exactly the distance he was going to be when he crossed the creek. I set my single pin sight on my bow to 34 yards and waited for a quartering away shot. As soon as he gave me the opportunity, I squeezed my release and made the most perfect shot I could ever dream of. This back when about twenty yards and crashed and then I heard nothing. He fell behind some brush so I wasn’t 100% sure but he was there. The Outfitter’s policy is that you don’t get out of your stand until a guide meets you to help you track. I made the call and because it was so early, the guide was about an hour away so I had to wait. That was the most painful one hour wait of my life. As soon as we went to the spot where I shot the deer we looked over and could see his rack over falling down tree. We walked up on him and couldn’t believe the mass all the way through his tines.
CHECK OUT MY FAVORITE SCENT CONTROL PRODUCTS
After getting him back to the lodge, we put a tape measure on him and he scored 162″ with 12 horrible points. This was by far the biggest buck I’ve ever shot and a true buck of a lifetime. I ended up getting a full body mount of this buck due to the unique white feet he has.
Besides the Outfitter managing his property correctly, I can only attribute my success to proper scent control before the hunt, on the way to the stand, and while in the tree. Without the Upwind scent spray and body wash, Scent Crusher gear bag to treat my clothes, and the use of an Ozonics unit while in the stand, I am confident that I would have been winded and my hunt would have been over.
To recap, I don’t think that you can be 100% scent-free all of the time but you can take measures to control your scent as much as possible. Personally I take my hunting very serious so I do everything I can to control my scent. All of the different companies that I mentioned above have done the research and have spent the money on creating these products for us to use to be successful hunters and I encourage you to do your own research if you don’t take my word for it.
